DCMA Abuse

The DMCA is designed to give copyright owners a quick remedy against online counterfeiters. Rather than being forced to go to court and obtain an injunction, a copyright owner can simply send a notice of claimed infringement pursuant to section 512 of the DMCA, 17 U.S.C. sec. 512. An Internet service provider receiving such notice then has to take the allegedly infringing content offline "expeditiously" in order to take advantage of the DMCA's statutory immunity. Because there is no judicial oversight of the DMCA process, however, the law is easily abused by companies seeking to silence critics. By merely asserting that a negative website contains copyrighted material (or other forms of intellectual property that most ISPs cover under their DMCA policies), a complainant can get the site taken off the Internet almost immediately, often within minutes, and without prior notice to the site owner.

Full article: http://pubcit.typepad.com/clpblog/2007/10/how-to-use-the-.html